Yard Critter of the Week - White-footed Deermouse

Peromycus leucopus, which Harold Boyd, in his "A Field Guide to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey", calls the White-footed Mouse.

It is also known as the White-footed Deermouse, deer mice being of the genus Peromycus.

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I've mentioned before that our cat Max likes to send time outside.

Max

But having cats outdoors is not good for the local wildlife, with cats being predators after all.

Max spends quite a bit of his time looking out the windows at the yard critters. Note the red stripe on Max's back. That's part of a harness which hook up to a leash when we let him outside. Tied to one of the railing posts on our deck.

As a pet, Max is well fed. And has never needed to learn to hunt for himself. So while he is fascinated by the wildlife in the yard, on those occasions that he has come face to face with another critter he is rather shy.

And when Patty went out to collect him one recent evening, she came running back into the house, announcing, "Max has a mouse!". She grabbed a flashlight and I grabbed a camera.

Max quickly lost interest in the mouse, which seemed confused by all the activity and the bright light.  Patty, who owns apartments in Philadelphia and lived there for many years, is no fan of mice. Me, while I certainly don't want them in my house nor my garage, realize that they are residents of our property. And this isn't the first we've seen.

But Patty doesn't want them around. So as Max was not earning his keep as a mouser, and had gotten away in the confusion (he wandered back into the house on his own when is started raining a little while later), I reached down and grabbed the rodent by its tail. It didn't seem all that perturbed at this.

And while I stood there holding it, Patty got one of our small aquaria. And we now have a "pet" mouse.

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I think tomorrow I'll take it somewhere far away and let it go.

You can find all of the Yard Critter posts listed here.